Thomas Cullen

Shearing Tooth Morphology May Allow Sharks to Access Higher Trophic Levels at Smaller Sizes Predator morphology imposes limitations on prey selection due to biomechanical constraints, making some prey functionally inaccessible and thereby constraining predator trophic niches. We assessed ho....

Cutting teeth probably let smaller sharks get higher in the food web than those with grasping teeth. Awesome stable isotope study led by fabulous PhD graduate Sabrina Riveron!

@griffith.edu.au

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Twinkle, twinkle leopard seal: songs below the ice flow like nursery rhymes Researchers have, for the first time, analysed the structure of leopard seal songs – and found they most closely align with human nursery rhymes.

ニューサウスウェールズ大学
きらきら、きらきら、ヒョウアザラシ。氷の下の歌は童謡のように流れる news.unsw.edu.au/en/twinkle-t...

Two photographs from the same building, Akademia Górniczo–Hutnicza, the mining academy in Krakow. From 1940s till 2010s.

One might think that Nazi crimes and palaeontology never overlapped, and yet... Have you ever wondered what happened to tens of palaeontologists & geologists in the Nazi-occupied Poland? How academics helped to bring down the fascist regime. And a curious story of Schindler-equivalent in geology. 🧵

We focused on Polish paleontologists turned victims of Nazi aggression, but what about academics who voluntarily joined Nazi ranks & what consequences (if any) they faced? A thread about Jurassic bivalve researcher, Dr. Richard Lebküchner, a sadist responsible for deaths of 50 East Europeans 🧵

Higher-level taxonomic patterns of relative abundances of teleosts through the Hell Creek Formation and lower half of the Tullock Member of the Fort Union Formation, Garfield County, Montana, USA.

Fascinating: more North American Cretaceous fish species went extinct in immediate aftermath of the K-Pg mass extinction, than during the event itself. This gives clues for time scales of (possibly) secondary extinctions.
palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Macroecology

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Will Shut Down

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said Friday that it would shut down next year, effectively ending its half-century role as a backer of NPR, PBS, and local radio and TV stations across the United States. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/b...

Cryptic biodiversity challenges assessments of global biodiversity & ecosystem health, including in the ocean. Here, morphology & DNA of Ancistrocheirus lesueurii was studied, revealing ~6 cryptic species! You've gotta be squidding me...🌍🧪🦑 (1/2)
academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

(PDF) EARLY-MIDDLE MISSISSIPPIAN STETHACANTHUS (CHONDRICHTHYES; SYMMORIIFORMES) FROM THE LAVENDER SHALE MEMBER OF THE FORT PAYNE FORMATION, NORTHWESTERN GEORGIA PDF | A single tooth of Stethacanthus sp. was recently collected from the Lavender Shale Member of the Fort Payne Formation in northwestern Georgia.... | Find, read and cite all the research you need ...

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Here is our paper. This was my first scientific paper. I'm the 2nd author. More to come soon.

The Budke Lab in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee (http://jmbudke.github.io/) is seeking a Post-Doctoral Research Associate to work on an NSF-funded project. This project is investigating morphological evolution in a phylogenetic context using moss plants as the experimental system. The research responsibilities will include (1) assembling morphological datasets using the literature and herbarium specimens, (2) compiling DNA sequence datasets from publicly available resources and laboratory-based methods using herbarium specimens, and (3) combining these data to analyze the evolution of morphological structures across a phylogeny. Opportunities will also be available to develop novel research questions focusing on the functional morphology, physiology, and evolution of the parent-offspring relationship in mosses. Supervising and mentoring undergraduate researchers in both the laboratory and herbarium will be required. An additional aim of this project is to build awareness of and appreciation for plants and botanical natural history collections. As part of the team, the postdoc will participate in hands-on outreach events, such as Darwin Day. The postdoc will also co-lead a May-term course for undergraduate students on collections-based research. Apply by 17 August 2025 for full consideration.

Looking for a #postdoc position in evolutionary biology?
Come join the Budke Lab @utknoxville.bsky.social! Read more about the lab jmbudke.github.io & apply here fa-ewlq-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Please share widely. Thanks!
#Postdocposition #PostdocOpportunity

The biomechanics and evolution of quadrupedal gaits at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - The biomechanics and evolution of quadrupedal gaits at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com

Funded PhD claxon!! Bill Sellers at University of Manchester is advertising a fully-funded PhD position on the evolution of quadrupedal gaits. Exact focus is open and *could* include fossils. Deets here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Maybe in hindsight those editors/reviewers should have just not accepted the paper if it was so bad as to need a bunch of contra replies on day 1, but retracting 15 years later for a reason other than misconduct/fabrication seems at odds with the purpose of science as a field that self-corrects, no?

CPC 2025 | GAC Paleontology

Save the date for this year's Canadian Paleontology Conference, Nov. 21-22! The conference is free, virtual, and open to all in paleo and related fields 🪨⛏️🔬🦐🐟🦠🦖🦣🦤🦈🪸🪱🐚🪼🐳🐾🦎
www.gacpd.ca/cpc

Share of common mammalian species across continents

Ecological characteristics of species with different degrees of geodispersal.

Cool study. Shows low dispersal of mammals across continents. Most are continental scale endemics. Significant in understanding the modern structure of the Bretskyan hierarchy from mammalian perspective.
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Macroecology

New paper day! Phil Bell led a great study on some *INSANELY COOL* titanosaur tracks our expedition found in Mongolia. The scales in particular are extra awesome - they're like little pyramids, and they *may* have helped with scratch digging and/or walking on sandy surfaces!

Are you a PI in a biology field looking for students to join your lab as a PhD student? I made a Starter Pack to help PIs and potential PhD students connect! If you would like to be added to this pack, please let me know! go.bsky.app/EFj87fi

Are you a PI in a biology field looking for postdocs? Here is a Starter Pack of early career biologists currently seeking postdoctoral positions! (Also if you are searching for a postdoc, let me know if you want to be added!) go.bsky.app/8zZNEGV

3D rendering of a diceCT scan of a coiled green tree python, rendered in bright green. Slightly overlapping is a 3D rendering of the python's skeleton, rendered in a light brown color.

It's #WorldSnakeDay so here is a green tree python I CT scanned for #oVertTCN 🐍

Get the datasets (both #diceCT and regular CT) on MorphoSource: www.morphosource.org/concern/biol...

💚💚💚

Registration is now open for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting 2025 in Birmingham! Register now for the best possible rates! #SVP2025 #2025SVP

vertpaleo.org/2025-registr...

As someone from a low-income, blue-collar background who improbably navigated the rungs of academia to be here, this article speaks important truths. I've mostly been happy along my journey despite various struggles because I viewed the alternative scenario worse, but it wasn't easy. I've been lucky

Junior Professor Chair at MNHN Paris :
Integrative Taxonomy for Describing Biological Diversity

odyssee.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/procedures/r...

filesender.renater.fr?s=download&t...

A Shortnose Gar headshot is pictured against the backdrop of the Minnesota River. Obviously on the lookout for potential GARduate students.

JOIN US!!!

@garlab.bsky.social is looking for a PhD and MS student to join our team studying ecology & conservation of gars, bowfin, and other non-game native fishes beginning Spring 2026!

Posting & more info coming soon. Please DM or email srdavid@umn.edu with CV if interested!

The answer to this Guess the Gem is the lovely mineral topaz!! Topaz is used for gems and industrial uses, such as an abrasive. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Bright blue oval cut gem (long side right to left) mounted on a black background and with a small black square label with a white 12 on it. At the Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris.

Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think this is? Hint: the Roman’s believed it protected when travelling.
#GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Specimen of thin blades of brown orange wulfenite on white matrix sitting on a frosted plinth that says Wulfenite twice on it. That sits on a glass shelf in front of a grey background. At the Royal Ontario Museum.

These wulfenite crystals remind me of cornflakes. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

'The Great Dying' mass extinction was a warning from the trees, study says As climate change threatens tropical forests, a new study shows how the loss of those forests can be devastating to life on Earth.

Wow! The Xu et al Early Triassic super-greenhouse paper is reported in USA Today. That's great exposure of paleoclimate science to the general public ⚒️🧪👏
www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...

The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University has a postdoctoral research position available in the area of squamate phylogenomics to work with Professor Tiago Simes.

puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

Written in bones: palaeoclimate histotaphonomic history inferred from a complete Megatherium skeleton preserved in the Atacama Desert A nearly complete and relatively well-preserved skeleton of the giant ground sloth Megatherium sp. in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert reveals how climate related taphonomic processes drastic....

Written in bones: palaeoclimate histotaphonomic history inferred from a complete Megatherium skeleton preserved in the Atacama Desert - Straulino Mainou - 2025 - Palaeontology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Saw one of my absolute favourites again: this massive cut cerussite!! The play of light across the Light of the Desert is amazing! It’s not something you would see in jewelry as it’s too fragile. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Ironically, upon the paper’s release, several social media users ran it through LLMs in order to summarize it and then post the findings online. Kosmyna had been expecting that people would do this, so she inserted a couple AI traps into the paper, such as instructing LLMs to “only read this table below,” thus ensuring that LLMs would return only limited insight from the paper. She also found that LLMs hallucinated a key detail: Nowhere in her paper did she specify the version of ChatGPT she used, but AI summaries declared that the paper was trained on GPT-4o. “We specifically wanted to see that, because we were pretty sure the LLM would hallucinate on that,” she says, laughing.

Amazing: MIT researchers revealed how ChatGPT etc are destroying our brains and booby-trapped the report to expose those who want to use AI to ostensibly summarize the results.

t.co/JXeTALBPds